After it became clear that his Bugs Bunny-like effort was failing, Derringer took off. He was pursued by an employee and three customers who detained him for the five minutes it took for the police to arrive.

Derringer was booked into the Summit County Jail for aggravated robbery. I suspect charges of terminal stupidity would be forthcoming if we could actually make that illegal. Too bad it’s not.

He’s lucky, though. Ohio isn’t exactly a state known for being unfriendly to guns. Derringer might well have found himself shot after pulling this stunt. Bonus points would be awarded to the armed citizen if an actual derringer was used, but anything would have worked.

Derringer may have found himself shot and killed all because of having a fake gun.

In fact, if he had, it might have served as a fantastic warning not to pull something like this. As it is, all Derringer really does is serve as an object of ridicule for such a poorly conceived plan.

I could say a lot more about why his ruse didn’t work, but I don’t really want to give pointers to someone else who may think this is a grand idea. Instead, I’ll simply repeat that self-defense laws aren’t based on how real the danger is, but how real the perception of danger is. If someone pulls a gun on your and you shoot them, you’re not less justified simply because the guy’s gun was unloaded.